This invention relates to a cut contour display method in a wire electric discharge machine. More particularly, the invention relates to a cut contour display method in a wire electric discharge machine for displaying wire electrode paths lying on the upper and lower surfaces of a workpiece, along with a plurality of cross-sectional contours obtained by cutting a taper cut surface by a plurality of planes parallel to the lower surface of the workpiece.
In numerically controlled machining, including wire electrical discharge machining, the common practice is to display the machining path determined by the NC program on a display unit, such as a cathode ray tube (CRT), before actual machining takes place, check the program based on the display and then start the numerically controlled machining operation. In wire electric discharge machining, wherein a wire electrode path on either the upper or lower surface of the workpiece is commanded as the programmed path, the practice in the prior art is to display only the wire electrode path lying on the upper or lower workpiece surface, which constitutes the programmed surface, when the program check is performed.
In a case where taper cutting is carried out by a wire electric discharge machine, however, the contour cut on the upper surface of the workpiece and the contour cut on the lower surface of the workpiece differ. As a result, the taper-cut contour cannot be fully comprehended merely by displaying solely the contour of one surface, namely the upper or lower surface of the workpiece. This constitutes a hindrance to the program checking operation.